On February 14th, at Downtown Seattle Association’s (DSA) State of Downtown event, several note-worthy stats were brought to light to paint a picture of Downtown Seattle’s story, since 2010. The driving factor behind the city’s transformation is the demand for more employees; it’s clear that housing is the “traffic jam.”

Present – 2020

The short version

The takeaway is more people are moving to Downtown Seattle than there are places for them to live. For the majority of Downtown Seattle, the only way to accommodate these new residents is to build upward. Two major concerns that the DSA discussed were homelessness and affordable housing, and traffic. They have not developed a solution, however, there is a 20-year plan called One Center City to develop a solution.

The event discussion was focused on Downtown Seattle (Downtown Seattle area defined by the DSA), but the findings reflect the story of all of Metro Seattle. Without an adequate supply of housing for the thousands of new employees hired per month, it’s not difficult to see how problems can arise. Downtown Seattle has its issues of traffic and congestion that other neighborhoods may not have, but the bottleneck in the story is the amount of available housing. Below is a snapshot of statistics for all of Metro Seattle, telling a similar story. The snapshot is taken from our 2017 Annual + Quarterly (Q4) Report.

Did you know Seattle broke several records this year? Have you noticed all of the changes happening around you? Did you know if you were looking for this website a year ago, you’d be – – – – out of luck! Do you remember when the whole city turned white and shut down? What is Seattle, without rain? Dry humor.

Breaking Records and Making Changes

Here’s a breakdown of 2017’s big changes and milestones, in Seattle and at the Wall Street Group, that you might have missed while texting.

January

Envisioned, by the owner of the Wall Street Group, to be a “one-stop shop” for everything that Seattle has to offer, the website has taken off and is grabbing the attention of more than 2,000 people/month. Pretty cool if you ask us. The most viewed pages are the Neighborhood Reports, the blogs, and the LOVE content (obviously, because who isn’t intrigued by LOVE?).

February

Monday, February 6th, snow swaddled Seattle overnight, closing schools and keeping many people home from work. What a drag that was, huh? Staying home with the family and enjoying a rare snow day. Should we make it a holiday in remembrance of such a rare event? We’ll talk to the Mayor.

March

Sun and tulips started creeping back into our lives as we all put on our summer garbs WAY too early.

April

Record-breaking month. Record-breaking month. Record-breaking month.

You read that right. Seattle broke 3 records in April.

From October 2016 to April 2017 (because, if we counted every month it rains we’d be cheating) Seattle took on 44.7” of rain, breaking the Rainfall Record from the previous year. That’s deep enough to paddleboard!

As the sky was naturally pouring down on us in copious amounts, didn’t it seem like it was raining every day? Well, almost. For 144 days, between October 2016 and April 2017, Seattle had more than .01 inches of rain. Thus breaking the record for the number of wet days.

In a different awards ceremony, Seattle celebrated the population officially passing 700,000 people. Keep in mind, the official-ness of the count is really more of a very educated, very calculated, and extremely researched guess. This is most likely the best guess we’ll get, as it is provided by the city of Seattle and Washington state, with collaboration with U.S. Census Bureau. (Sorry for all of that. We love data.)

July

Kusama comes to Seattle at the SAM

Yayoi Kusama, a Japanese contemporary artist who likes to work in sculpture and installations, showed Seattle what an infinity experience might look and feel like.

“Our earth is only one polka dot among a million start in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity.” – Yayoi Kusama

August

Don’t look at it!

Remember when the earth was going to stop rotating? Or how about when we were all going to turn into zombies? What about the time when we all looked at the Total Solar Eclipse without proper SolarGlasses (made of cardboard)?

Yes, we actually heard those claims. And don’t say you didn’t look at the Eclipse with your bare eyes. We’ve never seen what 9% of the Sun looked like either. (p.s. if you find any typos it’s because our eyes are still recovering)

Dry Humor

Would you believe that Seattle broke 2 rainfall records and in the same year we also claim the driest stretch too? We sure did! For a record-breaking 56 days, Seattle was without its most talked about characteristic, rain.

September

SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS

So, let’s get this out of the way. The Seahawks. First-year missing the postseason since 2011. But we started off strong with 4 wins during the preseason and ending the season over .500. Let’s keep our heads high and let’s hear it in 2018, 12s!

The Mariners. Oh, Mariners. They didn’t make it to the postseason…again…but did you get a chance to check out the homerun food offerings at Safeco Field? Ballard Pizza Co., Great State Burger, and Poquitos! Tempted to buy season tickets for the food. Yumm!

The Sounders had a great season with a 14-11 record, and making it to the MLS Cup finals. Not to mention our 9-year streak of having the best record in the MLS. We’re really looking forward to next season.

Space Needle gets a Spacelift

If you’ve been able to pull your eyes off of your phone for a moment and look up. You’ll notice the Space Needle looks a bit different. That’s because it’s getting a facelift. To be more specific, the safety cage that hinders the view will be replaced with floor to “sky” glass barrier; from the renderings, it looks like the restaurants may be getting fitted with a glass floor.

October

Oktober Fests, scare-athons, and “hello” cold weather again (we had a good run, sun).

November

Giving back and get-togethers

We couldn’t say enough about how much the Wall Street Group Brokers do for the community. All year long, they attend in charity events, roll their sleeves up for community service, and gladly pull their checkbooks out. November is a special time during the year when the staff, owners, and dozens of Brokers come together to help a few organizations.

Every year for last 15 years, our Brokers have offered a hand to help out families in need of a Thanksgiving dinner, with Child Haven, Northwest Harvest Food Drive, and #tacklehomelessness. It’s truly a beautiful time of year.

December

As we wrapped up a monumental year of changes, experiences, and a dynamic real estate market, we had a few more things to squeeze in. A couple more community events to provide winter clothing and toys to Seattle youth, and one amazing holiday party. Chihuly Garden and Glass hosted the Brokers of Wall Street Group for our Annual Holiday Party, and all we can say is, wow and #blessed. Blessed to have a community of relationships like you to look after one another and grow this wonderful city together.

And there ya have it, the most phenomenal changes and milestones in 2017. Maybe we stretched the meaning of phenomenal and milestones a bit, but they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Either way, 2017 was a great year for us at the Wall Street Group and it was pretty cool to watch all of the changes happen in Seattle.

For the last 15 years, continued through warm hearts and selflessness, agents of the Wall Street office have had the privilege of providing Thanksgiving groceries to families in need. The organization that makes this possible is ChildHaven, a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1909 to heal families and children and stop the cycle of abuse and neglect.

This year we were humbled to lend a hand to 15 families in need. By providing all of the items necessary to make a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, nearly 140 people (children, parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles) were able to commune with one another over their truly home-cooked meal.

We would like to give a special thank you to the QFC on lower Queen Anne who helped facilitate the food shopping experience. General Manager, Christopher Randish, Produce Manager, Jeremiah Kelly, and their team made the experience effortless by having items arranged, boxed, and nearly ready to go when we showed up at 8:00 am. Everything went smoothly with their generous help.

We were so grateful to be able to touch the lives of so many families this year and will continue to look forward to the next opportunity to reach out to our community to provide what we can. We also had a lot of fun. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Grey Weather in Seattle is a trending topic

We often cruise the cosmic interwebs (e.g. Google trends, Facebook feeds, and news articles) to see what the buzz is, around Seattle. After all, we’re involved in one of the most dynamic real estate markets in the world (currently), and it’s our job to know what people are talking about. Oddly enough, a lot of people are wondering what there is to do during the cold and rainy winter season and how people survive “this weather.” We’ll assume most of the people asking questions like this are Seattle transplants, but we have encountered a few Seattleites sounding a similar request.

The fact is Seattle doesn’t shut down when the weather changes from the beautiful sunny summer to the grey…other season. Actually, quite the opposite. This is when Seattle’s culture gets to shine.

Seattle is a city of Art

See, over the years, Seattle has grown to be a thriving city for the arts community. As early as the 1920’s, Seattle began to emerge as an international arts center. Jazz, Russian ballet performances, painters, and musicians of all kinds began showcasing their talents here. As of January 2011, Seattle was home to 4,571 arts-related businesses employing over 20,000 people. If that’s not compelling enough, Seattle was recently designated by UNESCO, as a City of Literature in the Creative Cities Network. Seattle is the top city in the United States for arts organizations per capita, and our nonprofit arts landscape is the fourth largest in the USA. Needless to say, apart from the booming tech industry as of late, the art culture has always been the major factor in people’s decision to relocate to the Seattle area.

[arve url=”https://vimeo.com/133316594″ title=”Welcome to Seattle City of Literature” description=”Listen to a few of the many literary leaders in Seattle discuss why Seattle is such a literary city and why it would make such a great addition to UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network. ” upload_date=”Monday, July 13, 2015 at 2:52 AM EST” /]

To add to its recent recognition, Seattle’s art scene is amplified by more than 140 theaters, museums, galleries, and arts-related businesses.

Theaters

Museums

Galleries

So, when the warm summer days, hikes with friends, long walks through downtown, and neighborhood festivals are put on hold during the grey season, look to the art scene. There are some hidden gems out there.

Don’t worry if art isn’t your thing

Of course, there are endless things to do in Seattle during the grey season. Are you a beer enthusiast? Would you rather spend your time in coffee shops, by the fire? I bet you’ve always wanted to learn how to play an instrument. What about dusting off those board games that you’ve accumulated over the years? Now is the perfect time self-exploration and indoor stimulation (although rainy hikes are quite liberating, too). What’s your favorite thing to do during the rainy, winter season?

The Gardner Report is an analysis of the Western Washington Real Estate Market, provided by Windermere Real Estate Chief Economist, Matthew Gardner. This is a great starting point to building more knowledge and helping you make better informed real estate decisions.

For more information about the real estate market in YOUR area, we have monthly Neighborhood-specific reports, as well as, our own Q3 2017 – analysis and Seattle area Report. If you have more questions please contact your Wall Street Group (of Windermere) Broker.

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ECONOMIC OVERVIEW

The Washington State economy added 79,600 new jobs over the past 12 months—an impressive growth rate of 2.4%, and well above the national growth rate of 1.2%. However, as we anticipated in last quarter’s report, we continue to see a modest slowdown in the growth rate as the state grows closer to full employment. Growth has been broad-based, with expansion in all major job sectors other than Aerospace (a function of a slowdown at Boeing). Given the current rate of expansion, I am raising my employment forecast and now predict that Washington will add 81,000 new jobs in 2017.

Given the robust job market, it is unsurprising that the state unemployment rate continues to fall. The current unemployment rate in Washington State is 4.6% and we are essentially at full employment. Additionally, all counties contained within this report reported either a drop or stability in their unemployment rate from a year ago. I maintain my belief that the Washington State economy will continue to outperform the U.S. as a whole. Given such a strong expansion, we should also expect solid income growth across Western Washington.

HOME SALES ACTIVITY

There were 25,312 home sales during the third quarter of 2017. This is an increase of 3.6% over the same period in 2016.

Clallam County maintains its number one position for sales growth over the past 12 months. Only four other counties saw double-digit gains in sales. This demonstrates continuing issues with the low supply of listings. There were modest declines in sales activity in six counties.

The market remains remarkably tight with listing inventory down by 14.2% when compared to the third quarter of 2016. But inventory is up a significant 32% compared to the second quarter of this year. Pending sales rose by 5.2% over the same quarter a year ago, which suggests that closings in Q4 will still be robust.

The key takeaway from this data is that inventory is still very low, and the situation is unlikely to improve through the balance of the year.

HOME PRICES

Given tight supply levels, it is unsurprising to see very solid price growth across the Western Washington counties. Year-over-year, average prices rose 12.3% to $474,184. This is 0.9% higher than seen in the second quarter of this year.

With demand far exceeding supply, price growth in Western Washington continues to trend well above the long-term average. As I do not expect to see the new home market expand at any significant pace, there will be continued pressure on the resale market, which will cause home prices to continue to rise at above-average rates.

When compared to the same period a year ago, price growth was most pronounced in Grays Harbor County where sale prices were 20.1% higher than the third quarter of 2016. Nine additional counties experienced double-digit price growth.

Mortgage rates in the quarter continue to test the lows of 2017, and this is unlikely to change in the near-term. This will allow home prices to escalate further but I expect we will see rates start to rise fairly modestly in 2018, which could slow price growth.

DAYS ON MARKET

The average number of days it took to sell a home in the quarter dropped by eight days when compared to the same quarter of 2016.

King County continues to be the tightest market, with homes taking an average of 17 days to sell. Every county except San Juan saw the days on market drop from the same period a year ago.

This quarter, it took an average of 43 days to sell a home. This is down from the 51 days it took in the second quarter of 2016 and down by 8 days from the second quarter of this year.

At some point, inventory will start to grow and this will lead to an increase in the average time it takes to sell a house. However, I do not expect that to happen at any time soon. So we remain in a seller’s market.

CONCLUSIONS

This speedometer reflects the state of the region’s housing market using housing inventory, price gains, home sales, interest rates, and larger economic factors. For the third quarter of 2017, I have left the needle at the same point as the second quarter. Though price growth remains robust, sales activity has slowed very slightly and listings jumped relative to the second quarter. That said, the market is very strong and buyers will continue to find significant competition for accurately priced and well-located homes.

ABOUT MATTHEW GARDNER

Matthew Gardner is the Chief Economist for Windermere Real Estate, specializing in residential market analysis, commercial/industrial market analysis, financial analysis, and land use and regional economics. He is the former Principal of Gardner Economics and has over 25 years of professional experience both in the U.S. and U.K.

Well Seattle, we made it. It’s October and the fall is upon us. (Wait, is it fall or autumn? Oh…the season with 2 names).

Every year, the fall brings us vibrant colors, cooler weather, Halloween costumes, and a strong desire to take a vacation. You spent nearly every day this year, busting your tail and getting the most out of your day, and now you’re in need of some you time. But, is escaping to a distant location possible with the holidays right around the corner? No, what you need is a local escape. Something to whisk your mind away from the daily grind and let you breathe in the Seattle Area that you’ve grown to love. Luckily, while you were doing what you do best, we did some homework for you.

Seattle has some incredible events, places, and opportunities to escape to during October. And, with Halloween right around the corner, there are some unique opportunities for personal expression. Something that we, too often, forget about.

Halloween Things to Do

Here are some Halloween themed events and activities to help you “escape” – family fun and some over 21 festivities.

In 2013, the state of Washington passed a bill to significantly improve its STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) learning opportunities and educational outcomes for K-12 students. Simply put, Washington schools, government, and non-profit organizations have teamed together to create more ways to give our children opportunities to learn and apply STEM skills. Each year, more opportunities arise, more grant money is budgeted, our children get excited, and a brighter future is painted.

Why is STEM important?

So, you may think STEM education has been around since you were in school. Unless you participated in Science Fairs and went out of your way to expose yourself to STEM activities, you probably only scratched the surface of what is available to children today. Traditional education teaches about cool technology, math equations, and engineering marvels. STEM education goes a step further and puts the student in the driver’s seat and creates opportunities to put their education to work. Wouldn’t it be fun to learn how to build a robot? Code a program to control the robot? Or use the robot to gather samples of ecosystems in the Puget Sound? With real-world application, students are given the opportunity to get excited about possible career paths at an early age.

Washington STEM put together an amazing video outlining what STEM means and how students can thrive from STEM education.

[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=27&v=DT5wR70lNDY” title=”Washington STEM – Inspire, Engage and Unleash Potential” description=”Washington STEM advances excellence, innovation, and equity in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education for all Washington students. Our vision is to see all students succeed in thriving communities all within a vibrant Washington state.” upload_date=”Nov 29, 2016″ /]

STEM is Important for Seattle

Let’s be frank for a minute. Consider the industry that has moved into Seattle. No, we’re not talking about all of the construction. We’re talking about the tech industry that is creating all of the construction. Companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Expedia (and the list goes on) are continuing to grow and change the landscape of Metro Seattle – not to mention the other giant corporations like Boeing, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Nintendo, Weyerhauser, and Windermere. The employees that these global companies are looking for are (for all intense and purposes) STEM employees. That said, 30% of their tech-savvy and STEM employees are transplants (not from Seattle).

The more foreign employees these companies recruit, the more real estate construction and buildings will be built to accommodate them. Following all of these employees will be more consumer businesses, restaurants, traffic and more advancements in the city infrastructure, and ultimately a bigger Metropolitan area.

The changes in Seattle are happening and will continue for years to come. The key to growing with the city is to acclimate our children to the new and future economy. Resources are widely available and access is becoming easier.

How can my child get involved in STEM education?

There’s a good chance your student is already involved in STEM education at school. Beginning in preschool and Kindergarten, students in Seattle public and private schools are provided with workshops, classroom learning and out of classroom exposure to STEM education. Middle and high schools offer clubs and organizations to further their interests.

The poke craze

Seattle is no doubt known for its seafood. Tourists come from far and wide to watch fish thrown through the air, at Pike Place Market. But what is this poke phenomenon taking the city by storm? Could it replace coffee, as the number one craze in Seattle? Probably not, but since early 2016 – when poke was only found on menus as specialty items and at high-end grocery stores – more than 45 businesses have opened to provide you with poke, within the Seattle Metro area.

Am I saying it wrong?

Poke (pronounced ‘po-kay’) originated in Hawaiian cuisine as a raw fish appetizer. When fisherman had extra cutoffs from their catch, they would season the fresh fish and eat it as a snack. However, you won’t find anyone snacking on poke in Seattle. This dish it too good! We need it in a large bowl, “and don’t skimp on the seaweed.”

Bertha has left the tunnel, finally. What’s next?

[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mc9TswBvGU” title=”Bye-Bye to Bertha, the world’s largest tunneling machine” description=”This time-lapse video captures the difficult and challenging work to disassemble the world’s largest-diameter tunneling machine. For four months, crews cut, hoisted and trucked away 8,000 tons of the machine’s equipment and steel, removing it from inside the tunnel it had built. Up next – finishing the double-deck highway inside and installing all the operating systems to open Seattle’s new SR 99 tunnel by early 2019.” upload_date=”Aug 23, 2017″ /]

As of August 24, 2017, Bertha has been completely disassembled. Bertha was working for nearly 4 years under the objective of a much larger project, The Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project. If you weren’t keeping up with Bertha and what the largest tunnel boring machine has been up to, less than 215’ below downtown Seattle [view the simulation below], here’s the highlight reel.

A Glimpse into 2023

When the entire Alaskan Viaduct Replacement project is completed (2023), Seattle will have a brand new 1.7-mile-long tunnel, an additional mile-long stretch of highway at the south end of the tunnel, new Alaskan Way street, new Alaskan Way Waterfront, Elliot Bay Seawall, and a seismic-safe way to travel. The current budget stretching into 2019 (when the tunnel will be open to the public) is set at $3.2 Billion. Another $149 Million may be needed to complete the program, estimated 2023. We can’t wait to see the entire project completed in all of its glory (and to have some major construction wrapped up around here). What are your tunneling thoughts?

Extras for your entertainment

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Did you know? Bertha actually built the tunnel behind her as she bored through the earth.

[/one_half][one_half_last padding=”0 10px 0 10px”]WSDOT simulation, taking you underground along the crown of the tunnel.

[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWfwnkEbc4Q&feature=youtu.be” title=”Proposed SR 99 Bored Tunnel Underground Simulation March 2010″ description=”The Washington State Department of Transportation, in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration, King County, the City of Seattle and the Port of Seattle, is leading a program to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct section of State Route 99, which runs along Seattle’s downtown waterfront.” upload_date=”Mar 16, 2010″ maxwidth=”300″ /]

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Visit Milepost 31 for a museum-like tour of projects that shaped Pioneer Square and the SR 99 Tunnel project.

It may seem like we say this a lot but, no two Seattle neighborhoods are the same. They each have distinct “personalities” that makes them unique. Without each neighborhoods’ quirks and characteristics, Seattle wouldn’t be the beautifully awe-inspiring city that it is.

So, which neighborhood is the best? Probably the one you’re currently living in, right? Or maybe it’s the one you gravitate to every time you need to throttle your taste buds, kick back with some culture, or loosen your inhibitions with some libations. We all have our guilty pleasures. So, just like all of the different quirks of each neighborhood, we have our own interests and idiosyncrasies.

How do you choose the best neighborhood? What do you look for?

Culture – hip, relaxed, business, young, family, lively

Music – jazz, theater, party, street performers

Food – seafood, Asian food, food trucks

Drinks – beer, liquor, wine

Proximity from home – worthy of a stay-cation, close enough to frequent and far enough to maintain priorities

Other?

If you’re having trouble nailing down your favorite neighborhood, then maybe you need to do some more exploring. Where to start? Our best advice is to ask your close circle of friends and family for their favorite spots to explore. There’s a reason you like them…they probably have some similar interests.

One of our Agent’s makes it a point to find a new restaurant every week.One of our Office Staff never does the same hike.Another Agent randomly picks an activity out of the Stranger Things each week.

These are great ways to get to know a neighborhood and area, but also an excellent way to test your comfort level. We’ve also put together a collection of idea sources at the end of the article.

Our favorite neighborhood?

Sorry if you thought we were going to take a hard stand and tell you which neighborhood is the best. That just wouldn’t be our style. We believe all neighborhoods are beautiful in their own right and it would be rude of us to pick our favorite.

Ok…we’ll tell you, but don’t tell anyone. Coincidently, our favorite neighborhood (and we believe this wholeheartedly) is the same one that you think is the best. See we’re kind of similar. 😉

Neighborhoods

Here’s a cool collection of neighborhood recommendations from Airbnb hosts. The hosts provide their recommendations and rank the neighborhood by their own standards. Although we might have some different things to say about this list, it’s pretty thorough and intriguing.

Here’s a short list of the 15 Best Neighborhoods in Seattle, from Seattle Magazine. Again, it’s not our opinion of the best neighborhoods, but the article offers some insight into what the neighborhoods are all about.

Things to do

Here are some excellent publications to spark your exploration around Seattle’s neighborhoods. You might even find some discounts and freebies.